CO129-427 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 223

300

3

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[69956]

No. 1.

[June 1.]

SECTION 1.

Sir,

India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received June 1.)

India Office, May 31, 1915.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th April, regarding the scheme of the Chinese Acting Minister of Finance for taking over the opium stocks and the establishment

of an official opium monopoly, and to inform you in reply that he would welcome proposals by the Chinese Government for taking over the opium stocks provided that the terms offered to the merchants are fair and reasonable. The subsequent establishment of a Government monopoly in opium appears to him to be a matter

for the decision of the Government of China.

I have, &c.

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

[2433 a-1]

213